CAISO released its first mandatory report under the California assembly bill that paves the way for an independent regional organization to assume responsibility over the ISO’s energy markets.
Under AB 825, CAISO must submit an annual report to the California governor and Legislature about the ISO’s various initiatives and decisions. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law in September 2025, and CAISO submitted the first report to the Legislature on Feb. 1, according to a news release.
“The ISO appreciates the commitment by Gov. Newsom and the Legislature to support independent governance of the real-time and day-ahead regional electricity markets that benefit consumers across the West,” CAISO CEO Elliot Mainzer said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with the state and stakeholders throughout the region to help make that new governance framework a reality.”
AB 825 allows for the creation of an independent organization to oversee CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market and soon-to-be-launched Extended Day-Ahead Market. The bill authorizes CAISO and California’s investor-owned utilities to join the organization.
Designed by the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, the organization was recently incorporated in Delaware as the Regional Organization for Western Energy. (See Pathways’ ROWE Incorporated in Delaware, Board Search Underway.)
In the AB 825 report, CAISO listed activities from the past year, including federal tariff proceedings, policy initiatives, decisions, market activity and transmission planning.
Among the more than 40 tariff changes listed by CAISO were proposed efforts to reduce the generator interconnection queue and a FERC decision delaying the sunset date on the WEIM’s Assistance Energy Transfer feature, which allows CAISO to limit market transfers into and out of BAAs that have insufficient supply or ramping capacity. (See CAISO Looks to Remove Stagnant Projects from Interconnection Queue and FERC OKs Extension of WEIM Assistance Energy Transfer Feature.)
The report lists suggested enhancements to congestion revenue rights, initiatives to address reliability needs and uncertainties between the day-ahead and real-time market, new resource adequacy rules, storage enhancements and greenhouse gas coordination, among other initiatives.
CAISO is also working to “extend participation in the day-ahead market to the [WEIM] entities in a framework similar to the existing WEIM approach for the real-time market. EDAM will improve market efficiency by integrating renewable resources using day-ahead unit commitment and scheduling across a larger geographic area,” according to the report.
The report notes that CAISO intends to seek approval from its Board of Governors for its 2025/26 transmission plan in May 2026.
Under the 2024/25 transmission plan, CAISO received approval for 31 projects valued at $4.8 billion, 28 of which are for reliability purposes for $4.6 billion. The ISO estimated it needs 76 GW of additional capacity to meet increasing building electrification and electric vehicle loads. (See CAISO Approves $4.8B Transmission Plan to Support 76 GW of New Capacity.)
